302 THE GARDEN OF A 



the matter, however, she did not attempt to un- 

 ravel. 



As this flitted through my brain, I said, seeing 

 light : 



" I suppose she is returning from abroad, and 

 you think it would be more cheerful for her to come 

 here while her home is made ready than to go to 

 a hotel. Of course I will make her welcome, 

 though, if I remember rightly, I was always a bit 

 afraid of her, she sat up so straight, and had a long 

 slim waist, fine clothes, and such white, pointed 

 fingers." 



"Her fingers will no longer be either white or 

 pointed soon," said father, with a sigh. " She has 

 come home not to open her house, but to take up 

 the vocation of a trained nurse. Why she does it, 

 I do not know. It is not from lack of money, and 

 as she is mentally and physically sound, I have no 

 choice but to take her; and I am glad to have our 

 new venture of a training school start with such 

 good material. When I saw her last week at the 

 hospital, she was quiet and serious, and her choice 

 is evidently not a mere whim. 



" You know that we were to have opened the 

 school the middle of this month, but circumstances 

 have delayed the date a week. As she has made 



